<div>Faba bean (Vicia faba L.), is a popular legume crop due to its high protein content (22-38.2%), dietary fibre (12%), medicinal and nutritional values and environmental benefits. It is considered as an excellent source of protein, particularly in developing countries where people cannot afford to buy meat. It also has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticancer, anti-diabetic and anti-atherosclerotic effects. But the presence of some key anti-nutritional factors, such as vicine and convicine, tannins, phytic acid etc.&nbsp; restricts the potential utilization of this crop as food and feed. Vicine and convicine are the thermostable, glucosidic aminopyrimidine derivatives that accumulate in the cotyledons of faba bean during seed development and maturity and cause &ldquo;Favism&rdquo; or haemolytic anaemia upon consumption by individuals having deficiency of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase enzyme. As globally millions of people are genetically predisposed to such condition, it is highly desirable to eliminate these compounds from faba bean without compromising yield and other quality characteristics. In this review, we have highlighted the recent advancement in the field of genomics and molecular marker technologies for an easy and efficient selection of faba bean with low vicine and convicine content and the strategies to deploy these efficient tools in the future molecular breeding programs in faba bean.</div>

Advancement in Genomics and Molecular Marker Technologies for Breeding of Faba Bean with Low Vicine-convicine Content: A Review

<div style="text-align:justify">Background: The post-harvest tomato fruit rot disease is common threat to the tomato fruit, causing huge economic loss as revealed by (GOP, 2018). The present study was conducted for isolation and identification of causative agent of tomato fruit rot in order to formulate the proper management stretegies.&nbsp; Methods: Study was conducted in three phases. Phase one included collection of tomato fruit samples from vicinity of Tandojam. In phase two pathogens were isolated from the samples at laboratory, while in the phase three pathogens were identified using standard procedures.&nbsp; Result: The experimental results indicated Alternaria solani as the main cause of post-harvest tomato fruit rot. The symptoms observed were presence of brown to black rot lesions on tomato fruits with distinct rings ranging from small pin-heads to whole surface of fruit. A total of six different fungi viz., Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger, Alternaria solani, Geotrichum candidum, Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizopus stolonifer were found to be associated with post harvest tomato rot. Significantly higher infection was recorded for A. solani (53.667%) followed by A. niger (16.333%) and G. candidum (13.00%). The lowest infection percentage was observed for F. oxysporum (2.333%), followed by A. alternata (4.00%) and R. stolonifer (9.00%). A. solani produced aerial mycelium with yellowish to reddish diffusible pigments. A. niger cultures were typically black and colonies were initially whitish to yellow and later became brown to black in colour. G. candidum produced white and nonaerial colonies. F. oxysporum produced circular, aerial mycelium initially white, later changed to light pink. R. stolonifer produced whitish to grey fuzzy colonies.&nbsp;</div>

<div>Isolation and Identification of the Fungi Causing Tomato Fruit Rot Disease in the Vicinity of Tandojam, Sindh</div>

Background: The study has a bifold objectives, firstly to determine the concentration of lead (Pb) in the pond water and bioaccumulation of the lead in the muscles of Danio rerio raised with the same pond water. Secondly, the study seeks to investigate its effect on the anti-oxidant enzyme catalase in Danio rerio, within the vicinity of a historical gold mine region located in the Kolar Gold fields (KGF), Karnataka, India.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: To achieve the objectives, the study employed Thermo Scientific&rsquo;s Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and ICP-AES using Iteva software to evaluate and statistically analyze the distribution of lead in the pond water and and ICP-OES to evaluate the concentration of lead in the muscles sample. Four sample sites (A, B, C and D) were selected based on their proximity to residential area. Pond water samples were analyzed between April and October 2022 following a southwest monsoon rain.&nbsp; 
 
Result: During the study in the pond water, sample site B and D exhibited an exceedingly high Pb concentration during October with 0.98 mg/L against 0.21 and 0.16 mg/L in April 2022 against the maximum permissible value of 0.05 mg/L by WHO 2008 and USEPA 2009, followed by site A and C. The control sample had a normal range of 0.01 mg/L. The concentration of Pb in the muscles on day 30 of October&nbsp; was exceedingly high in the sample site D with 1.9 mg/Kg against 1 mg/Kg on day 30 of April followed by the sample sites B,C and A, which is far above the threshold value as per the regulatory bodies (WHO 2008). The increase in the concentration of the lead decreases the catalase enzyme in the brain region of Danio rerio, the value goes down drastically from 112.3 (&micro;M H2O2 utilized/min/mg protein) to 105.8 in sample site D between day 30 of April and October months, to that of the control value being stable from 151.7 to 150.94 (&micro;M H2O2 utilized/min/mg protein). The outcome of this experiment will facilitate the assessment of pond water contamination levels and the likelihood of contaminants entering the aquatic environment, resulting in the bioaccumulation of heavy metals in the aquatic organisms. The above results clearly indicates the effect of south-west monsoon rain in increasing the levels of lead concentration in the pond water during the month of October to that of April, which indirectly affects the physiology and metabolism of the fishes raised in the contaminated habitat of Kolar Gold Fields.&nbsp;

Bioaccumulation of Pb (Lead) in the Muscles of Danio rerio and its Effect on the Anti-oxidant Enzyme Catalase in the Mining Vicinity of Kolar Gold Fields

<div>Timber is a commonly used building material which is porous in nature, continuously maintaining equality with relative humidity (RH) and temperature of the atmosphere in the immediate vicinity. Moisture content influences several performance parameters like timber durability, immunity to deterioration etc. Several procedures have been attempted which enables to measure the moisture contents in timber consistently and rather accurately. This review provides the technical details of the methodologies attempted so far to estimate moisture contents in timber specimens. The proposed inter-digital sensing was carried out at Department of Instrumentation, CUSAT during 2019-2020. Implementation of a method employing a spiral inter-digital capacitive sensor, which is low in cost and non-invasive in nature, is presented and discussed.</div>

Techniques to Measure Moisture Content in Timber: A Review and Proposal for Inter-digital Sensing

<div>Background: A very little study has been conducted on the phylogenetic diversity of Nepalese indigenous goats where four breeds, Khari, Chyangra, Terai and Sinhal, have been identified.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: The 625-bp long sequences of the mitochondrial DNA hyper-variable region obtained from 93 goats in this study revealed high haplotype diversity among breeds, which come under four haplogroups (A-D). 
 
Result: The study demonstrated a certain level of gene flow among the neighboring goat populations exhibiting no correspondence between the geographic regions of origin and relationships among breeds. The complex mtDNA diversity and structure identified among indigenous Nepalese goats can be explained by gene flow through ancient trading and the current &lsquo;free&rsquo; movement of goats across the geographic vicinities in India and China. Furthermore, HapG B showed the southward direction of gene flow which does not cross the Himalayas, whereas HapG B1 revealed the South-West gene flow from the claimed domestication center for HapG B, China, to Nepal.</div>

Origin and Genetic Diversity of Nepalese Indigenous Goats (Capra hircus)

<div style="text-align: justify;">Sound is one of the most important means of conveying information over long distances as well as in close vicinity. Utterance of animals becomes unique for them when they communicate their individuality or physiological state to the other co species partner. Present study was based on hypothesis of discrimination of individual identity through vocal signal of lactating karan fries (KF) cows. For this 25 KF cows were selected for recording of their vocal signal. Vocal call was recorded after separation of animal from their living herd in the morning hours. &nbsp;Acoustic features of vocalization of individual cow were extracted with the help of PRAAT acoustic analysis software. Analysis of all acoustic features extracted from 250 voice samples of 25 KF cows revealed that differences for amplitude, Total energy, pitch, intensity, formants, pulse, periods, unvoiced frames, voice breaks, jitter, shimmer, mean noise/harmonic ratio and mean harmonic/noise ratio were found highly significant (p &lt; 0.001). Out of these only few acoustic features viz. pulse, pitch, jitter, shimmer, voice break and formants were observed to have significant (p&lt;0.05) difference between each and every individual KF cow. Among these feature formants frequency of every individual cow had a unique pattern in the distribution of frequency contour in their vocal spectrogram. Study concluded that vocal signal of KF cow have some unique feature at individual level, by which cow identification could be made.&nbsp;</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Discrimination of karan fries cow&rsquo;s individuality by the mean of their vocal acoustic features</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Reasonable evidences suggest that heavy metal pollutants have been added by factories and other industries to our local water bodies. The present study was conducted to determine the heavy metal (zinc and lead) concentrations in muscle tissues of Labeo rohita inhabiting local water bodies as well as those being raised at farms. Sampling was performed to collect Labeo rohita from two different stations along river Ravi, viz. Lahore Siphon (upstream) and Balloki Headworks (downstream). Additionally, samples were also obtained from the government operated as well as private fish farms located in Lahore District, Pakistan. The fish were dissected; their muscles were digested, filtered, and finally analyzed for concentrations of Zn and Pb. Significant variation of heavy metal ions were observed between two sites along river Ravi as well as government operated and private fish farms. Significantly high mean concentrations of Zn (10.7&plusmn;1.268) and Pb (0.61&plusmn;0.082) were observed at Balloki Head-works; whereas, the lowest Zn (1.58&plusmn;0.235) and Pb (0.16&plusmn;0.008) heavy metal levels were recorded in the muscle samples collected from private fish farms. It was also observed that the heavy metal concentration in the muscles of Labeo rohita, collected from Balloki Head-works was much higher than the permissible limits laid down by WHO/FAO. Further the recorded highest level of heavy metals in water samples collected from River Ravi indicates that the bioaccumulation of heavy metals is severely affecting the aquatic life of fresh water and industries should not be allowed to release their effluent directly into the river Ravi in their vicinity.</div>

Assessment of zinc and lead concentration in water and muscles of Labeo rohita collected from wild and local fish farms of Pakistan

<div>Background: Khejri [Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce] belongs to the family Leguminosae and subfamily Mimosoideae. The rural communities encourage the growth of Khejri in their agricultural fields as it improves grain yield and storage biomass production. It is the true multipurpose species and also called as &lsquo;Golden Tree of Desert&rsquo;, &lsquo;Kalpvriksha&rsquo; of the desert, &lsquo;King of desert&rsquo;, &lsquo;Love Tree&rsquo;, and &lsquo;Pride of the Desert&rsquo;. For any tree improvement programme, knowledge of phenology and breeding system is pre-requisite, which also helps in understanding the evolutionary dynamics of a species. The range of genetic variability is controlled by reproductive system, which in turn controls the adaptive change. Pollination mechanisms affect seed set, fertility, gene flow, breeding systems, hybridization and genetic constitutions of tree populations. 
 
Methods: In this investigation during 2014-15, ten trees of [Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce] growing at the research area of Forestry Department of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar were randomly selected and phenological observations were made on the selected trees at different phenophases. Through selfing, breeding behaviour was examined, by covering the inflorescence with muslin cloth bags before opening. Approximately, an equal number of buds were kept open in close vicinity of the covered branch. Reproductive capacity was estimated from the percentage of fruit setting in marked inflorescence. 
 
Result: In present study of Prosopis cineraria, the average fruit set under self-pollination was nil whereas it was 2.03 per cent in open natural pollination. This study confirms previous studies that Prosopis cineraria is a cross-pollinated species.</div>

<div>Studies on Phenology and Reproductive Biology of Khejri [Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce]</div>

<div>Background: Morphometric measurements are important for the characterization of farm animal breeds and have become very useful in determining their morphological standards. Identification of animals based on breed standards are important for breed improvement and conservation programmes. Murrah, India&rsquo;s world famous buffalo breed, is the highest milk producer and improver breed. Prevalence of Murrah grades in the vicinity of breeding tract of the Murrah warrants their differentiation. The objective of this study was to define the morphological standard of the Murrah buffalo and differentiate it from the Murrah grades.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: Fourteen body biometric traits of 258 she buffaloes were recorded from the core and peripheral breeding tract of the breed. In order to separate the animals into two groups, data were subjected to cluster analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis were used respectively to describe the body conformation and identify the combination of independent traits that distinguished Murrah from grade Murrah. 
 
Result: Our study showed significant differences between the traits of Murrah and grade Murrah (p&lt;0.05). The grade Murrah she buffaloes were smaller than the Murrah counterparts. PCA results showed that five factors explained 67.4% of total variance of studied morphometric traits in Murrah she buffaloes, whereas in Grade Murrah six components explained 72.7% of the total variance. The stepwise discriminant function derived with eight body biometric traits was able to discriminate Murrah and grade Murrah she buffaloes effectively. A total of 93.5% original grouped animals were classified correctly. The present work determines the morphometric standard of the Murrah buffalo through characterization and identification of latent factors of morphometric traits. Subsequent use of this information in marketing, breeding, management and conservation purposes can give significant productivity gains.&nbsp;</div>

<div>Morphological Standard of Murrah Buffalo of India based on Multivariate Analysis of the Phenotypic Traits</div>

Background: The study has a bifold objectives, firstly to determine the concentration of iron (Fe) in the soil and pond water within the vicinity of a historical gold mine region located in the Kolar Gold fields (KGF), Karnataka, India. Secondly, the study seeks to investigate the process of bioaccumulation of the heavy metal, iron in the muscles of Zebrafish inhabiting the same area. 
 
Methods: To achieve the objectives, the study employed Thermo Scientific&rsquo;s Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and ICP-AES using Iteva software to evaluate and statistically analyze the distribution of iron in the soil, pond water and muscles samples. Four soil sample sites (A, B, C and D) were selected based on their proximity to residential area. Soil samples were examined from January to December, 2022, while pond water samples were analyzed between April and October, 2022 following a southwest monsoon rain. 
 
Result: During the study, the analysis of soil samples taken from the four mine landfills revealed elevated levels of heavy metals, with the highest mean concentration of 41915.17 mg/kg found in Site A. In the pond water, sample site B exhibited an exceedingly high Fe concentration during October with 5.56 mg/L followed by sample site D, A and C with 4.89, 3.89 and 3.54 mg/L, respectively against 0.98 mg/L in the control site. The concentration of Fe in the muscles was exceedingly high in the sample site B with 10457 mg/Kg on day 30 of October to that of 8219 mg/Kg on day 30 of April month, which is far above the threshold value of 100 mg/kg as per the regulatory bodies <a href="#who_1993">(WHO 1993)</a>. The outcome of this experiment will facilitate the assessment of surface soil contamination levels and the likelihood of contaminants entering the aquatic environment, resulting in the bioaccumulation of heavy metals in the aquatic organisms.

Advancement in Genomics and Molecular Marker Technologies for Breeding of Faba Bean with Low Vicine-convicine Content: A Review

Isolation and Identification of the Fungi Causing Tomato Fruit Rot Disease in the Vicinity of Tandojam, Sindh

Bioaccumulation of Pb (Lead) in the Muscles of Danio rerio and its Effect on the Anti-oxidant Enzyme Catalase in the Mining Vicinity of Kolar Gold Fields

Techniques to Measure Moisture Content in Timber: A Review and Proposal for Inter-digital Sensing

Origin and Genetic Diversity of Nepalese Indigenous Goats (Capra hircus)

Discrimination of karan fries cow’s individuality by the mean of their vocal acoustic features

Assessment of zinc and lead concentration in water and muscles of Labeo rohita collected from wild and local fish farms of Pakistan

Studies on Phenology and Reproductive Biology of Khejri [Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce]

Morphological Standard of Murrah Buffalo of India based on Multivariate Analysis of the Phenotypic Traits

Spatial Evaluation of the Heavy Metal Iron in Soil, Pond Water and its Mobility into the Muscles of Zebrafish using ICP-OES